


Touches of Autumn

by mksc77



Category: Major Crimes (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-29
Updated: 2020-10-29
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:42:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27269665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mksc77/pseuds/mksc77
Summary: First day of Fall 2020–On a rather mundane day, Sharon and Andy remember a Canadian vacation from Fall 2019.
Relationships: Andy Flynn/Sharon Raydor
Comments: 2
Kudos: 28





	Touches of Autumn

September 22, 2020

Sharon woke up early on Tuesday morning and slipped out of bed, trying not to wake Andy. It was his first official day of retirement, and she wanted to let him sleep in if he wanted. She started a pot of coffee, knowing Rusty would be up soon to help her finish it, wrapped herself in Andy's robe, and took her mug out to the swing on the back porch. Birds were singing, and she breathed in the scent of tea olive from the nearby bush. Tea olive was her favorite smell in the world, and it was always one of the first signs of autumn. Feels like fall, she thought to herself as she got settled and opened her devotion book to the current day. Ugh, she knew she'd been living in LA for a long time when 69 degrees first thing in the morning felt like fall.

Andy came outside a few minutes later, barefoot and in boxers and a long-sleeved t-shirt, his eyes still heavy and hair disheveled from sleep. "That's where my robe is."

"I'm sorry, honey, I thought I'd be inside before you got up." Sharon closed her book. "Did I wake you?"

Andy shook his head. "Not really, but you know I can't sleep without you beside me."

Sharon rolled her eyes. "You are so full of shit. But, if you're trying to get me back into bed, it won't take much convincing," she admitted. Morning sex was her favorite kind, and Andy knew it.

Andy wrapped his arm around her and kissed the top of her head as Sharon lay on his shoulder. "Remember what we were doing about this time today last year?"

"Are you kidding? How could I forget?" Sharon was starting to feel aroused just thinking about it. "I think my knees are still quivering from that." Andy had always been good with his hands, but damn, he'd outdone himself that morning. "Just talking about it is foreplay in itself."

Andy grinned. "Well, that should make my job easy."

"Oh, no you don't, I still expect the full pre-game show." Abandoning her coffee and devotion, Sharon took Andy's offered hand when he stood up and eagerly followed him to their bedroom.

September 2019

Sharon looked at Andy in his shorts and long-sleeved t-shirt. "You know it's going to be 50 degrees when we land."

"But it's so hot," Andy whined.

"And you'll be bitching when it's cold in Alberta," Sharon pointed out. She double-checked her carry-on and luggage. "Are you ready? We need to go."

"Yeah..." Andy looked at Sharon's bags. "Do you have some kind of competition with yourself to see if you can pack more luggage than the last trip every time we travel?"

"Do you have some kind of competition with yourself to see if you can take even longer to get ready than last time?" Sharon shot back. It was 3:00 in the morning, and tempers were admittedly a little short at the early hour. Her expression softened. "I'll put my things in the car and get some coffee, but then we need to leave. You want some tea?"

Andy nodded and looked at the clock on his nightstand. "Wait, do we really need to leave by ten after three, or did you just tell me that so we'd leave by twenty after?"

Sharon quickly turned her attention toward Poppy, who had scrambled from the foot of the bed to Sharon's spot the minute the alarm clock went off. She had been watching them with the disgusted contempt of any dog whose slumber was being unnecessarily interrupted. "It didn't take long for you to steal my spot, did it, girl," Sharon murmured as she scratched the top of her head. "I'm going to miss my little furball this week."

After giving the dog a few final pats, Sharon went to the kitchen for her and Andy's respective Yeti tumblers and filled them from the Keurig. By the time she'd put her bags in the car, taken Poppy out, and double-checked the list of reminders she'd left on the counter for Rusty, Andy was finally coming in with his luggage. They didn't have the heart to ask Rusty to take them to the airport in the middle of the night, but valet would work just as well.

A couple of hours later, after grabbing a quick breakfast from the food provided in the business class lounge, they lounged in the comfortable seating while waiting for their boarding time to approach. Andy eyed Sharon's cup of coffee. "You're drinking that like you're not going to be unconscious before we even take off."

"I will not," Sharon insisted.

Andy rolled his eyes. "Yeah, okay."

"I bet you'll fall asleep before I do," Sharon challenged.

Andy looked thoughtful. "Okay, I'm in...Loser has to do whatever the winner wants, of the bedroom variety, for the entire trip."

"Deal," Sharon answered, without hesitation.

"Are you sure?" Andy asked. "You did see the big ass bathtub in our room and the hot tub on the porch, right?" He asked, referring to the pictures they'd looked at of the house they were renting for the week.

Sharon shrugged. "It doesn't matter. I've got this in the bag."

Andy shook his head. "There's no way. I've taken enough early flights with you to know you won't last long."

Sharon raised an eyebrow. "If you say so. I've seen you fall asleep sitting straight up enough times to know how long you'll last, much less in a comfortable seat."

"This is one bet that I'm going to win, I will not fall asleep first..." Andy trailed off. "Damn, we sound old."

Sharon laughed as she gathered her purse and carry-on to move closer to their gate. "I know, right?"

A little while later, after being in the air for almost an hour, Sharon was reading, turned sideways in her seat, and looking entirely too alert for Andy's liking as he struggled to hold his eyes open. She glanced at him over the top of her book every couple of minutes, amused as he grew more and more drowsy. It was like watching her children fighting sleep as babies until they finally gave it up. When he blinked for longer than a couple of seconds, she knew it wouldn't be long. She did usually fall asleep pretty quickly after boarding on early flights, but just to pass the time and because she knew she'd feel a little better after getting a couple of extra hours of sleep. After years of sleepless nights with babies and small children, she still had the ability to go without when necessary, and winning a bet was definitely necessary. It would've been more difficult if they were on a shorter flight that didn't have much choice for seating with Andy's shoulder being right beside her to nestle into, but the six-hour flight had called for business class.

Andy grew more and more frustrated as he fought to stay awake and couldn't figure out how in the hell Sharon was still upright. This never happened. He pretended to look down at his phone, hoping to disguise the fact that he was closing his eyes for just a few seconds...

The next time Sharon looked over at Andy, his phone had dropped from his hands and into his lap, his chin was resting against his chest, and his mouth was hanging open. She finished her chapter, took a picture of him with her phone for evidence, tucked her book and glasses away, and got comfortable before falling asleep, herself.

Almost three hours later, Andy jerked awake when he nearly fell out of his seat from turbulence. No! Maybe she hadn't noticed...He looked over at Sharon, who was fumbling with her seatbelt and looked like she'd just woken up, herself. Maybe she fell asleep around the same time as he did and hadn't noticed...

"You lost," Sharon mumbled, yawning and digging through her carry-on for her glasses case.

"I...Uh," Andy sputtered.

Sharon showed him her phone with the incriminating picture before he could try to talk his way out of it. "I'll start making my list now."

"Of course you could find a way to make a damn list out of that," Andy muttered. Sharon and her lists.

Once the turbulence calmed down, a flight attendant asked if they'd like anything to eat or drink. Sharon was about to decline until she heard someone else's order. "Oh, that sounds good, I'll have a Bloody Mary."

"Am I going to have to carry you off the plane?" Andy joked, three drinks later.

Sharon rolled her eyes. Between the hearty lunch they'd been served and the couple of hours that had passed since her first drink, the alcohol would be mostly gone by the time they landed. She knew he was just referring to the fact that this was unusual for her, especially during the day, so she didn't think much of it. The Bloody Mary mix had been the best she'd ever tasted, and they had the perfect amount of Tabasco, so she hadn't been able to resist ordering a couple more. "Yeah, and I might just have to go straight to bed and sleep when we get there."

"Never mind," Andy quickly amended.

Sharon smiled to herself. It had always been a mystery to her where the "teenaged boys, one-tracked minds" expression had come from. She had yet to meet a grown man who had grown out of the "one-tracked mind" phase.

They landed a little over an hour later. They were renting a car with William and Beth, whose plane was landing about thirty minutes after theirs. They got their luggage and went to the rental car area, where they'd agreed to meet. The line was long, so Sharon told Andy to text her if he wanted her to relieve him and found a seat in a nearby dining area to wait with their luggage.

By the time Sharon had called Rusty to make sure he'd fed Poppy and let her out and returned the calls and texts she'd missed on the plane, she saw William and Beth walk by and called out to them. "Hi, baby brother," she squealed, jumping into his arms. She hugged Beth next, and they chatted for a while before she realized that it had been a while since she'd left Andy at the rental desks, even for the line to have been long. She texted him to see what the hold-up was, and apparently there had been a few mix-ups and it was going to be a while longer before they could leave.

"We might as well get a drink while we wait," Beth suggested, after Sharon relayed what Andy had told her.

Sharon shrugged. "I had a couple on the plane, but it's been a while since my last one." She pulled some money out of her wallet and gave it to William. "I'll get the first round if you'll get them for us? Sauvignon Blanc for me."

"Does that mean you'll go get the next round when I pay for them?" William countered.

"Oh, little brother, you should know by now that that's not how this works."

William rolled his eyes. "Why am I over fifty, but still feel like you'll make up something to tell Mom and Dad I did if I don't agree?"

A couple of drinks later, Andy finally returned with the keys to the rental. Sharon and Beth had reached the giggly stage of alcohol consumption. "You couldn't supervise them any better than that?" He teased as he and William shook hands.

William shook his head. "When they get into the wine together, it's out of my hands. You know that."

Andy laughed. "I'll go get the car and pick you guys up at the door. It's a black Jeep Cherokee."

"I'll come with you," William volunteered. "They've been taking about menopause for the last thirty minutes."

"They are such wimps," Sharon muttered as she finished her drink.

"I'd like to see one of them have just one hot flash, much less go through anything else," Beth added. At 52, she was the baby of the group and was just now in the throes of all of that.

"I don't envy you," Sharon said sympathetically. "That was miserable."

It was almost 5:00 by the time they'd stopped at a grocery store and reached the mountain house. As Sharon looked around the large master bedroom they'd kicked in a little extra for, she saw that it was absolutely worth it. She traded her jeans for thick leggings and put on some fresh socks before putting her boots on and meeting Beth on the large porch with a couple of glasses and a bottle of wine. Kate and James would be arriving around 7:00, and they were going to pick up a couple of pizzas, so they didn't have to worry about getting dinner ready.

On Sunday morning, Sharon woke up before the sun had made its way over the mountain. She had a bit of a headache from the previous day's alcohol, but it wasn't anything that Advil and coffee wouldn't take care of. William was the true early riser of the family, but even he wasn't awake yet. She took advantage of the early-morning peace and filled a large mug with coffee and went outside to read on the porch. The clear blue of the lake was barely visible through the pre-dawn grayness, but she could see the leaves that were starting to change colors. At 43 degrees, the heater beside her chair was necessary, and it gave off enough light for the porch light to be unnecessary. She wrapped her warm robe around herself a little more tightly and got comfortable with her book. When the sun began to rise, she could tell that they'd have a good view of it coming over the mountain from the dock, so she'd have to drag Andy out of bed a couple of mornings during the week for that.

A couple of hours later, the others were starting to rise. The three couples had divided meals for the week, and Sharon and Andy were in charge of breakfast. "I'll finish up here, you can go sit on the porch with the others," Andy told her. Sharon refreshed her mimosa and kissed him. She didn't have to be told twice. "Thanks, honey."

They were all a little tired from traveling the day before, so they stayed around the house for most of Saturday. Between baseball and football, the large TV on the porch provided much of the entertainment for the day. After dinner, Sharon looked through the seemingly endless supply of games in the cabinets of the living room. "Oh, this looks fun," she said, pulling out Battle of the Sexes.

Kate rolled her eyes. "You love to play a game."

"No, she loves to win games," Andy corrected her.

"Come on, let's play," Sharon urged. After reading through the directions and getting the men and women settled on opposite sides of the bar outside, she drew a card. "Oh, you guys get an easy one. How many times a month is a woman supposed to get her period?"

"Once...Right?" Andy asked, second-guessing himself and looking to the other two for confirmation.

"I swear, it seemed like more," James mumbled.

"I know it got used as an excuse more than once a month," William added. "But we better answer before the game police starts whining. Once."

Sharon sipped her wine. "You guys are such drama queens...And I am not the game police."

"The Charades incident of 1993 would suggest otherwise," Kate muttered under her breath.

A little while later, William pulled a card to read to the women. "What did the 13th Amendment to the Constitution do?"

"Abolish slavery," they answered in unison.

"Wait, why is that specific to male knowledge?" Sharon asked. That wasn't the first "male" question that had been about basic history.

William rolled his eyes. "Leave it to Sharon to complain about winning a point."

"What color is the Viagra pill?" Andy asked a few turns later. He grinned. "Sharon won't be able to answer this one."

Sharon raised an eyebrow. "Uh, your heart health might have more to do with that than anything else."

"Blue," Kate and Beth answered at the same time, laughing when their husbands blushed ten different shades of red.

On Sunday morning, Sharon dragged a less-than-enthusiastic Andy out of bed to go down to the dock to watch the sunrise. She was usually a little sluggish first thing in the morning, but Andy was worse. She was in warm leggings and a thick sweater and had coffee and tea for both of them by the time Andy had gotten dressed. After grabbing a couple of blankets, they started down the steps to the lake.

It's September, it should not be 37 damn degrees," Andy complained as they settled comfortably into one of the large chairs. "Although, if I had won the bet, then I'd be suggesting a good way to warm up right about now."

"I like that the first day of fall actually feels like it, for once...But if you think this blanket is going anywhere, you're out of your mind...That does give me an idea, though." Sharon took Andy's hand and slipped it into her panties.

"All right, I guess a bet is a bet," Andy obliged. "The only bad thing about this position is that I won't be able to see when you start chewing your bottom lip when you're about to come."

"I do not chew on my bottom lip," Sharon retorted, although she knew Andy was probably more in tune with her cues than she was. What the rest of her body was doing wasn't usually a concern of hers the closer she got to climax.

It wasn't long before her legs started to tremble, and Andy could feel her body heating up against him and hear her struggle to breathe properly. He grinned when he felt a tremor go through her body, and she relaxed more heavily into him with what was somewhere between a cry and an exaggerated sigh. "Am I that good, or are you just that easy?" Andy murmured into her hair. "There's a sentence I never thought I'd say."

"Hmm," was all Sharon could muster, feeling too relaxed and euphoric for anything more coherent than that. They were lost in each other and the peaceful stillness of the early morning, forgetting their original intent for coming outside so early.

"Shit, Andy, when did the sun come up?" Sharon asked a few minutes later. She'd vaguely noticed when the sky had begun to grow brighter, but they'd both forgotten to actually watch the sun come over the mountain.

"I don't know...Crap, does that mean we'll have to do this again?!"

When they got back up to the house, William was pouring a mug of coffee. "Where have you guys been?"

"The dock. We went to, ah, watch the sunrise," Sharon answered breathily, still a little shaky from the earlier distraction and trying to hide the fact that her legs were still quivering.

"Uh-huh," William said, with a suspicious look at Sharon's flushed cheeks and the look of satisfaction on Andy's face. "Poor Rusty," he muttered.

After breakfast, Sharon and Andy decided to try a nearby hiking trail while the others either stayed around the house or went into the nearest town to look around and shop. The hike went a little slowly, as the sweeping views of the clear blue lake through the changing leaves in the trees were breathtaking and often caused them to stop and just savor the view. Sharon moved more slowly than normal, as her legs weren't still quite right from that morning. "Are you okay?" Andy asked, after stopping to let her catch up for what wasn't the first time.

"Yeah. My knees are just still weak and kind of shaky from this morning. What the hell did you do to me?" She lightly smacked Andy when a smug look took over his features. "You're pretty proud of yourself, aren't you?"

Andy nodded. "Damn straight."

That night, Sharon and Andy stayed on the porch for a while after the others turned in. It had been a lazy, cozy day. The temperature had dropped considerably since sunset, and Sharon shivered and tightened her blanket around herself and snuggled more closely to Andy. "How are those knees?" He murmured.

Sharon lay on his shoulder. "Back to normal...So you'll have to do something about that again in the morning."

Andy grinned. "Challenge accepted."

Back to Present

Later that morning, Sharon got out her fall decorations while Andy took Poppy for a walk and Rusty listened to one of his law school class lectures at the kitchen table. While they weren't staying completely isolated like they had for the spring and much of the summer, they were still at home a lot more than normal. As more information about the spread of Coronavirus had become available, they'd decided it was safe to see friends in small groups outdoors for short periods of time, but while they were getting out a little more than before, they still were confined to the house a lot more than they were accustomed to. Sharon blamed that for going a little fall-crazy and ordering more decorations, despite the fact that she had more than enough as it was.

Rusty rolled his eyes as Sharon draped fall garland through the rungs on either side of the entryway between the kitchen and living room. "Oh, god, here we go. It's about to look like autumn threw up in here."

"You and Andy act like it's physically painful for someone around here to have a little sense of occasion," Sharon replied. "It's fall, what's wrong with wanting to be a little cozy?"

"Yeah, because that's what everyone wants when it's eighty degrees outside. To be cozy."

"Careful, kid, you know how your mom gets when you bring facts into her arguments," Andy said, coming in with the dog and placing her leash on the hook by the garage door.

Sharon folded her arms. "You guys can stop ganging up on me any time, now. You have my permission."

Rusty shrugged. "Why would we? It's fun to get Darth all riled up."

Sharon raised an eyebrow. "It won't take either of you long to realize that it's not in your best interest to double-team me."

Rusty immediately went quiet when he remembered that Sharon still, like, paid for all of his shit, and Andy did the same when he realized that his favorite quarantine pasttime kind of required her.

After dinner that night, Sharon took her book out to the porch with a glass of wine, as she'd done most nights in the couple of years since they'd moved into the new house. It had taken her most of the afternoon to get her porch decorations exactly how she wanted them, but the candles, pumpkins, lights, fresh chrysanthemums from the yard, and other decorative touches she'd added made her feel cozy and excited for fall. Despite Andy's cracks that he felt like he was in the middle of a spread for Town & Country.


End file.
